50th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid marked this week

A “sleeper” provision when Congress created Medicare in 1965 to cover health care for seniors, Medicaid now provides coverage to nearly 1 in 4 Americans, at an annual cost of more than $500 billion. Today, it is the workhorse of the U.S. health system, covering nearly half of all births, one-third of children and two-thirds of people in nursing homes (“5 Challenges Facing Medicaid at 50,” Kaiser Health News, July 27, 2015).

As Medicaid and Medicare turn 50, Ohio is nearing a related milestone of its own: Soon, 5 million of the state’s 11.6 million residents will rely on at least one of the two massive government programs for their health care (“Medicare, Medicaid reach 50^th birthday among questions on future,” Columbus Dispatch, July 30, 2015).